Prof. Dr. Robin Santra

Head of Theory Division

Center for Free-Electron Laser Science

bldg. 99 / room 03.029

Robin Santra is a Professor of Theoretical Physics jointly appointed by DESY and the University of Hamburg. He studied physics at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. In 2001, he finished his dissertation in theoretical chemical physics. In his thesis work, he integrated in bound-state electronic-structure theory a technique for treating metastable states and applied this to characterize a process known as Interatomic (or Intermolecular) Coulombic Decay. After working as a postdoctoral research associate at JILA (University of Colorado, Boulder) and at ITAMP (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), he joined Argonne National Laboratory in 2005 as a staff scientist. In 2008, he was in addition appointed an Associate Professor Part-time in the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago. In 2010, Robin Santra joined the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) in Hamburg as head of the CFEL Theory Division. Robin Santra's research areas include Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics; Theoretical Chemical Physics; and Computational Physics. He is particularly interested in x-ray-induced processes; ultrafast laser-driven phenomena; applications of short-wavelength free-electron lasers; electronic-structure theory; and non-Hermiticity in quantum mechanics. For his accomplishments, he has earned several fellowships and awards throughout his career, e.g., the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize and the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE). He is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.